Coyote Comms: Believe due process. (Riley J. Dennis) - Transcript
Note: The provided lines are taken directly from the script. It has a near perfect correlation to the video. (SpaceGuru5's "Bi Star" logo appears and fades out.) SpaceGuru5. Hey guys. SpaceGuru5 here. Well, it’s been a while since I covered something politically charged, hasn’t it? This time, it’ll be about rape allegations. Yeah, strap yourselves in, folks. We’re about to enter dangerous territory. Viewer discretion is highly advised. (Intro sequence. The music here is "Prelude in E Minor" by Frederic Chopin.) SpaceGuru5. Before I begin, I’d like to introduce you to the subject of today’s commentary. Enter Riley J. Dennis, a political commentator who champions the LGBT and fights for their rights...even though, for the most part, things are pretty much resolved now. There’s a bit more to her than that, of course. She’s also the type of LGBT person who’d go out of their way to force sexualities into places they don’t belong (like, for example, when she talked about how Mario characters are queer). She also makes videos about how white genocide isn’t a thing and how polyamorous relationships should be more acceptable by society. Yeah...we’re in for a far-leftist train wreck today, folks. I should also point out that one of her suggested channels is marinashutup (someone I covered in 2016), who is another member of the feminist freak squad. Just pointing that out. Today, I’ll be talking about a video by Riley discussing why she believes survivors and those who accused Brett Kavanaugh of rape. The whole Kavanaugh brouhaha is too long and complicated to be explained in this video, but I’ll try to give a synopsis of what’s happened. (White text appears as SpaceGuru5 continues talking. It disappears after the following paragraph ends.) SpaceGuru5's text. Hey. Riley brought it up, so now I have to talk about it. It's only fair to this discussion. SpaceGuru5. Brett Kavanaugh was being considered for confirmation as a Supreme Court judge, which is one of the highest judicial positions in the entire country. However, as this appointment was considered, a number of accusations came out against him from women claiming that he raped them, most notably Dr. Blasey Ford. These accusations were debated by the Senate and by the wider masses. Some wanted him to be disqualified, others wanted him to be appointed, and accusatory opinions about both sides ensued. This led to nasty widespread bickering on both sides, with either opinion being associated with certain sectors of the political spectrum. In other words, this was yet another instance of needless politicization of a major issue in a decade replete with such instances. What came out of this incessant bickering? Well, you’ll find out as I dissect Riley’s video. Let’s tune in and start slicing away. I should let you guys know right now that this video consists of a lot of pointless rambling, which is why I’ll end up skipping a lot here. I’ll be aiming to address her points directly regardless. Riley. For a while, I had no idea what I could add to this conversation or how I can make a video on this topic, because it seems very obvious to me that we should believe Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers and not appoint him to the Supreme Court. End of story. Like, that doesn’t take several minutes to explain. His accusers’ accounts are highly credible. SpaceGuru5. So you’re saying that we should just assume these allegations to be true without any due process or trial? No, dude. There’s perfectly good reasons why the United States justice system operates on the “innocent until proven guilty” notion and not the other way around, especially with the climate left in the wake of #MeToo. However, I’ll get into those as this video goes along. For now, just know that if we took all allegations at face value without questioning it, then hordes of innocent people would be punished just because someone said they should be. That isn’t justice; that’s insanity. Riley. At this point, when I’m recording this, five different women have come forward, though that may have changed by the time this video goes live. The #MeToo movement has been happening for long enough that folks should know by now to believe survivors. So what else is there to say? I’m not really sure there is much. SpaceGuru5. Well, here’s something to be said. While the #MeToo movement has succeeded in bringing much-needed attention to survivors of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment, it’s also been used by opportunists to defame people who never committed such acts to begin with. If you don’t believe me, look at what happened to Toby Turner, aka Tobuscus. He was accused of rape by his ex-girlfriend and just about everyone believed it, thus damaging his reputation. However, later on he made a video explaining that the accusation was bullshit. Regardless of whether or not you believe him, you can’t deny that things like this can and certainly do happen. See also Gordon Ramsay. Empowerment should mean your voice gets heard as much as the others, not that your voice should overpower the others. Learn the difference now or stay quiet. Also, if you’re not so sure that you can add much to this discussion, then why the hell are you talking about it? Riley. I do think it’s really important to talk about this stuff and to voice our support for survivors, which is why I’m making this video. SpaceGuru5. Oh, so basically you’re just making this video to cash in on it under the pretense of “spreading awareness.” Good to know. If that seems a bit harsh to say, just take a look at your lack of sources and your overwhelming presence of social media links. Yeah, that says just about everything for me. Riley. I try to make videos on topics like these educational and informational and sum up everything you need to know about this topic. But this time, more Kavanaugh accusers are coming forward every day. Senate Republicans keep finding new ways to be shitty. SpaceGuru5. Hold the phone. You’re making seditious remarks about senators of a political party? What basis do you have for this? Obviously you don’t have any, because there are certain Republican senators who aren’t 100% trusting of Kavanaugh either. Just look at senator Jeff Flake for example. He agreed to have the FBI investigate Kavanaugh when the Democrats put that prospect on the table. He also stated he wouldn’t be voting to confirm Kavanaugh until the investigation was conducted. If he really wanted to keep things covered up, he wouldn’t have agreed to such an investigation. Hell, President Trump even gave the order to conduct it just a short while later. It’s egregiously unfair for you to demonize an entire political party when there are actual Republicans, both in and out of office, that agree that the claims against Kavanaugh should be investigated further. If you’d rather generalize people based on what political party they associate with, then why should I give your statements any attention? Riley. But I think the reason I wanna make this video and the main point of this video isn’t necessarily to tell you everything about the Kavanaugh situation. It’s just to voice my support for survivors. (Video is paused and darkened to emphasize white text, which represents SpaceGuru5's points. This is set to the theme song of Curb Your Enthusiasm.) SpaceGuru5's text. If you’re not gonna go into further details about the Kavanaugh situation, then why are you talking about it? / If you really wanted to show your support for victims of sexual abuse, you could’ve done so without mentioning it. / This video just seems like it was made as a means for you to talk shit about Republican senators. How very subtle of you... / Save the political talk for someone who actually knows what the hell they are talking about. Please and thank you. Riley. Right now, it sure seems like there’s a lot stacked against sexual assault survivors. Republicans are telling them that they’re never to be believed. Tons of people are supporting those Republicans. SpaceGuru5. Oh yeah, because it’s completely fair to generalize an entire political party and associate certain opinions with it, especially since you fail to mention which Republicans are doing this and which people are supporting them. I really detest how so many issues get turned into nonexistent Democrats vs. Republicans drivel, because doing so prevents real discourse from happening and thus enables people to be discursive about important issues. It’s exceedingly dangerous to overly generalize the opposition in such a way because you risk attacking straw men and thus making yourself look less credible. Political discourse should never be a matter of us vs. them; it should always be a matter of “let’s work together to find a solution we can agree with.” And whaddaya know? Both Democratic and Republican senators are agreeing to investigate the rape allegations further before voting to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. If you can’t be bothered to be mature about serious discussions, then you just flat out shouldn’t be adding to or starting any serious discussions. Plain and simple. Riley. So I believe Dr. Blasey Ford. I believe Deborah Ramirez. I believe Julia Swetnick. And I believe the other women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault. I believe survivors. It’s clear from these accusations that Kavanaugh has a history of assaulting women. These women have no reason to come forward and put their well being in danger if he did nothing to them. SpaceGuru5. But the thing is, we don’t know whether or not any of these women are lying. At the moment, their accusations are just allegations. They haven’t been proven to be true or false yet, so we can’t definitely say for sure whether or not Kavanaugh even did anything to them. If he did do something, then sure, he should be dealt with accordingly. However, if he didn’t do anything to them, then you’re gonna look like a total asshole for immediately siding with liars. I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t support rape victims, but at the same time you shouldn’t automatically take what they say at face value. Crocodile tears exist, and so laws against slander and defamation exist. Basically, just be careful who you trust. Riley. Dr. Blasey Ford has already had to move to stay safe from death threats after coming forward. His accusers even have the President of the United States against them. (White text appears in a similar fashion to the previous text, although the video is left playing for the sake of time.) SpaceGuru5's text. Oh, you mean the same POTUSPresident of the United States. who ordered the investigation? Riley. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Nobody would do that and put themselves in that situation if they didn’t have a really good reason, and that reason is they don’t want a man who sexually assaulted or attempted to sexually assault them sitting on the Supreme Court. Their accounts are credible and follow patterns that align with other sexual assault survivors. To dismiss them outright is to say that you don’t care about survivors and that all you care about is putting Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court, which is what Republicans are doing right now. It’s hard to describe this in any other way than sickening. SpaceGuru5. Well, just so we’re clear, I’m not dismissing them outright. I’m just saying that allegations are only allegations until they are proven to be true or false. You can’t accuse someone of something and expect it to be automatically taken as fact. That’s why trials exist. That’s why the justice system exists. If you’re not satisfied with the way it’s done here, then maybe you should consider becoming a legal expert. Then you’ll see how far your notion of “guilty until proven innocent” goes. Riley. Republicans want to vote on confirming Kavanaugh before hearing all these women out. Republicans don’t care what his accusers have to say. That’s...scary. He’s not even being put on trial for these actions. He’s just losing a chance at getting an extremely powerful job. People get denied jobs for all sorts of lesser reasons. He should absolutely be disqualified for having these allegations against him. SpaceGuru5. So you want someone to be disqualified from holding a federal position because of things that haven’t been definitively proven yet? It’s a bit premature to be calling for something like that right now. Just because you think someone is guilty doesn’t automatically mean that someone is guilty. That’s why we have due process to determine the indisputable truth. You could at the very least wait for the allegations to be proven or disproven to make a judgment call, but then you wouldn’t get the extra clicks for talking about hot button issues and exploiting emotions. Again, real subtle there. Riley. Lots of folks have been saying that Kavanaugh’s accusers weren’t assaulted because they didn’t report it at the time, but there are a plethora of reasons why someone would not report. Go on Twitter and read through the whole WhyIDidn’tReport tag and you’ll see so many people who have stories about why they didn’t report their rapist or abuser. It’s not uncommon. SpaceGuru5. While I can certainly understand not wanting to report rape or sexual abuse, the judicial system implements a statute of limitations. This is a statute that specifies the maximum length of time any prosecution can be administered for a non-capital offense. In the case of the United States, the limitation is 5 years, so anything that happened before this date 5 years ago cannot be held for prosecution, unless it is otherwise expressly provided by law. And in case you’re wondering, rape and sexual abuse are not capital offenses in the United States; capital offenses include murder, genocide, espionage, and treason. I’m not saying there can’t be exceptions for reporting non-capital offenses, but those don’t happen very often. I’m also not saying that you should be expected to just suck it up, report the crime, and move on as though nothing happened. I know that the psychological effects of rape and sexual abuse will never go away, even if the rapist or abuser winds up thrown behind bars. However, just know that, in the United States, there certainly is a time limit for prosecuting someone in court for non-capital offenses. 5 years. Know the number. Riley. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Kavanaugh. Right now, it seems like Republicans are going to confirm him to the Supreme Court regardless of the allegations, but if we continue to speak out and support survivors, maybe we can convince them not to. There are a few senators who could be swayed, so please call your senators and urge them not to confirm Kavanaugh. It would just be such an insult to survivors everywhere if this man were to be appointed to the Supreme Court. SpaceGuru5. I know this video was posted on September 30, before the vote to confirm Kavanaugh was carried out, but on October 6 he was officially sworn in as a Supreme Court justice. This motion was done because the FBI investigations proved fruitless, thus the allegations made against Kavanaugh remained as allegations. I should point out that there have been people on both sides saying that the investigation wasn’t thorough enough. However, it should be mentioned that each of the allegations against Kavanaugh were over events that happened in the early 1980s. Obviously, since these events happened more than 35 years ago, there isn’t gonna be quite as much evidence for them still floating around anymore. Again, see the statute of limitations. You can interpret Kavanaugh’s swearing in however you want to, but the fact remains that he was still sworn in because the investigations didn’t turn up sufficient evidence. That’s not to say that terrible things didn’t happen to these women, but the fact that they waited nearly 40 years to come forward with these allegations certainly put the odds against them. If you want more examples of this, look at the dozens of women who made allegations against Bill Cosby for things he allegedly did to them in the 1960s and 1970s. All of them were dismissed because the statute of limitations had long since expired for them. It was for more recent incidents that Bill Cosby wound up being imprisoned for aggravated indecent assault. (White text appears after SpaceGuru5 is done talking. The music heard here is "Fantasia III" by Johann Jakob Froberger.) SpaceGuru5's text. Even though Bill Cosby was sentenced for a crime he committed in 2004, his victim’s report was filed within the statute of limitations and settled in a civil court case. Because of this, a new team of prosecutors re-assessed the case and was able to get Cosby sentenced for aggravated indecent assault. That’s why his sentence was only 3–10 years. Riley. But I don’t know, maybe I’m preaching to the choir here. Maybe everyone has already picked their sides in this. I don’t know how productive this video will actually be, but I had to say something. It’s hard to sit back and watch this happen without saying anything. SpaceGuru5. Well, considering the fact that you didn’t bother to look up any legal information, and considering that you’re chiefly known for talking about things from your own purely holistic viewpoint (which is further exemplified in this video), maybe it was best that you didn’t say anything about it. The only reason why this issue is so divisive here is because we have way too many people talking about it that have no idea what they’re even talking about. You have to look at things from the legal perspective because the justice system doesn’t care about how you feel about an event; it only cares about what you did during an event. End of story. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.English translation of the phrase Ignorantia juris non excusat, which is a real legal phrase. Riley. Please, if you’re on the fence about this issue at all, try to have compassion for these women. They have gone through and continue to go through so much and they need our support right now. Think about what you would do in their shoes. Think about the support you would want. Believe them and believe all survivors, even if they’re your friends. “He’s a nice guy to me” isn’t a solid defense because people can be nice to one person and rape another. Rapists aren’t always the creepy friendless person in the bushes. Often they’re very charismatic, well liked people who use their social power to silence the people they abuse. I believe Dr. Blasey Ford and the other accusers. I believe all survivors. I hope you do, too. Thanks for watching, everyone, and I’ll see you next time. (Video shatters, with the appropriate sound of glass breaking.) SpaceGuru5. And that’s the way this roadrunner runs. Before I continue with my final thoughts, I’d like to clear up a few things that may’ve been lost in translation during my interjections. (White text appears as SpaceGuru5 keeps talking. It disappears once this paragraph ends.) SpaceGuru5's text. This is the part I'm sure many people watching this will ignore, so I ask that you give your completely undivided attention to this. SpaceGuru5. I have nothing but sympathy for survivors of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment. I know people in my real life who have gone through those things. I think that the people who commit such actions against others should face criminal charges. However, if you want to think about bringing these actions to court, you have to consider all of the legal ramifications and statutes. Even if the judicial path isn’t fruitful and the rapist or abuser gets away with it Scot-free, just know that you will always have the support of those who you are close to and you can trust. If you decide to accuse me of being a rape apologist for the things I’ve said here, just know that you are completely in the wrong, and you should be ashamed for trying to slander me. Now for my final thoughts on this video. Talk about a vapid waste of time. This video was just a five minute ramble fest that didn’t even once consider the legal perspective of the Kavanaugh situation. I again must ask why she made this video in the first place when she even acknowledged early on that she wouldn’t go in depth about it. It was her choice not to elaborate on the whole ordeal thus far that proved to be her biggest hamartia. This seriously felt like another one of those pointless webcam rants made by random nobodies so they can talk about whatever current topics they want to, without bothering to do their own research or providing any meaningful commentary. See Jason’s J’Opinions if you want a good parody of them. This is sadly the case with all of Riley’s content, this video included. I have no idea why anyone would ever take her seriously when she doesn’t say anything meaningful. This just goes to show that you need to actually put effort into contributing to real discussions, even those as rife with vitriol as the ones about Kavanaugh. The Kavanaugh situation as a whole was one of the most overly dramatized things ever, mainly by those in the wider public below the federal levels. This whole ordeal got people on both sides showing their best and worst forms. As I’ve stated before, this was just one of many “controversial” topics that occurred in the 2010s, and there’s no doubt we’ll continue to see things like this in the upcoming 2020s. If there’s anything to be taken away from this situation, it’s that emotions should never be used in place of logic. Otherwise, you just wind up with nonsense like what happened to #MeToo and other related movements. That’s about it for today, folks. I’m SpaceGuru5, and, as always, take care. (Outro sequence. The music playing is "Largo" from Xerxes by Georg Friedrich Handel.) Notes Category:Transcripts